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6 changes I make to my Android phone before every vacation
With the vacation season in full swing, it's worth taking a few minutes to get your phone ready before you travel. While modern Android devices already come packed with helpful features for traveling, there are still numerous useful travel settings that need to be enabled or configured manually. If you want your phone to be properly prepared for the trip ahead and avoid running into avoidable issues along the way, here are some things you can do to make your phone travel-ready.
Set up a vacation focus mode before I leave
Reduce distractions while keeping important alerts
Many of us find it hard to keep work life from distracting us, even during our travels. Sure, you can turn off notification sounds, enable Do Not Disturb mode, or mute specific apps, but there's a far easier and more effective solution—Focus Mode.
Pixel, Motorola, Nothing, my OnePlus, and several other phones use Google's built-in Digital Wellbeing suite, and Focus Mode is one of the most useful features in it.
On top of pausing notifications, Focus Mode grays out those apps on your home screen. Tapping them gives you the option to use them for 5 minutes, which is perfect if you just want to do a quick daily check-in at work without letting it take over your vacation completely.
You can find it by going into Settings >Digital Wellbeing & parental controls >Focus. From there, select all apps that might distract you during your travel (including social media apps if you don't wish to use them on your vacation), then tap Turn on now or, alternatively, set a schedule.
Samsung phones offer a similar experience through the built-in Modes and Routines.
Download offline maps before I need them
Navigation should work even without a signal
One of the most important steps I never skip before traveling abroad is downloading the local map for my destination. This has saved me hundreds of megabytes of expensive roaming data when I traveled to Berlin last month.
Even though I still used kept my cellular data on to navigate the city, Maps only needed a few megabytes to fetch things like live train schedules and optimize my route. In fact, there were a few instances where I completely forgot to turn my mobile data back on, yet I could still find my way back to my accommodation, find major tourist attractions, and even locate more niche things like the nearest McDonald's.
To download a map for offline use, head over to Google Maps, then tap on your profile icon in the top-right corner. Go to Offline maps >Select your own map, then select the area you wish to download and tap Download.
While Google Maps is a solid baseline and probably what you're familiar with, it's worth pointing out that there are alternative navigation apps that do just as good or even a better job at offline navigation.
Lower my phone's refresh rate
The highest battery draw comes from your screen
Before I upgraded to the OnePlus 15 and its massive 7,300 mAh silicon-carbon battery, I suffered from chronic battery anxiety with my aging Realme X2. Although the OnePlus 15 can easily get me through a full day of heavy use when I'm exploring the streets of a new city, those habits of taking care of my battery have carried over from my previous phone.
There are several ways to maximize battery life while still keeping the phone usable—in other words, I don't run around with my phone in Battery Saver Mode permanently when I travel.
First, I reduce the refresh rate to the standard 60 Hz in place of 120 Hz (and 165 Hz in supported apps). To do this, head over to Settings >Display & brightness >Screen refresh rate > select Standard.
Remove the charging limit to maximize battery life
Make every charge last a little longer
Apart from tweaking the refresh rate, the other thing I do when I travel is disable the battery limit on my phone completely.
I've found that I regularly end the day with around 20–30% battery left when I enable an 85% battery limit on my phone, but when I'm traveling, I want to make use of every single percentage that my phone can offer. To do this, go to Settings >Battery >Battery Health > toggle Custom charging limit off. The exact wording and steps may vary slightly depending on your device.
Double-check my Find Hub tracking toggles
A small check that can save a massive headache
One of the smallest yet most important precautionary steps I take before I head to the airport is verifying that the tracking toggles in Find Hub are set up correctly on both my and my wife's phones. If one of our phones gets lost or stolen, we can log in through our phone, laptop, or even ask a family member to access a desktop and attempt to locate the device(s), mark them as stolen, lock them remotely, or even wipe the data completely.
To access these options, head over to Settings >Security & privacy >Device finders >Find Hub. Make sure Allow device to be located is enabled, and, optionally, enable Remote Lock and Find your offline devices as well. The exact steps and wording may differ slightly depending on your phone make and model.
Use Data Saver to avoid roaming surprises
Keep background data usage under control
Depending on your mobile plan, mobile data can be surprisingly expensive when you travel abroad. I typically only prepay for a gigabyte or two of roaming data when I travel and do my best to save every megabyte I can.
While I still have to be careful with how I use my mobile data, there is a simple way to minimize wasted data, mainly by restricting background usage.
To find it, head over to your phone’s Mobile network settings. Go to Data usage >Data saving and toggle Data saving on. You can still allow specific apps to continue using unrestricted data if you're concerned about receiving notifications. Note that the exact wording and menu layout may vary slightly depending on your phone.
Get your phone ready before your trip begins
If you have a trip planned soon, take a few minutes to go through your phone and make these changes before you head out. It will only take a few minutes, and yet it will make your trip a lot more worry-free and enjoyable.
